Police have charged a former teacher with murder following a shooting spree in Dallas in which his ex-wife, former girlfriend and two other people were killed.

Erbie Bowser, 44, was arrested late Wednesday at the scene of one of the shootings, in the Dallas suburb of DeSoto, police said. "He went into custody peacefully," said Melissa Franks of the DeSoto police department.

Franks said police were treating the shootings as a "domestic incident".

Killed in the DeSoto shootings were Bowser's 47-year-old estranged wife, Zina Bowser, and 28-year-old Neima Williams. Two boys, aged 13 and 11, were taken to hospital where they were said to be in a critical condition.

Police say the shootings began at a house in southwest Dallas about 15 minutes earlier leaving a woman and her daughter dead and the woman's son and a family friend wounded.

Relatives identified two of the dead in the first house to WFAA local news as Bowser's ex-girlfriend, 43-year-old Toya Smith, and her daughter, Tasmia Allen, 17.

A neighbour in DeSoto, Tommy Johnson, told the local CBS station that he heard a loud bang. "We thought it was coming from upstairs, because the kids are always upstairs making noise," he said.

"I went up and asked, 'Did y'all hear anything?' and one of my daughters said it came from outside. So, I peeped out the front and that's when I saw a bunch of officers walking down the sidewalk about 10 houses up."

Bowser is said to be a 6ft 7in ex-teacher and former dancer nicknamed "E-Luv" who performed with the Dallas Mavericks basketball team's ManiAACs. The dancers are described on their website as a "hip-hop dance troupe of beefy men".